geordie Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 April 19,2004 Sean, Geordie, Dan, and Dave Four of us headed to Bolivia for 6 weeks of climbing. The plan was to start off with some acclimitazation, then do trips in the Cord. Occidental and the Condoriri area of the Cord. Real. I noticed the altitude as soon as we landed. El Alto aka JFK in La Paz is about 13,000 and I was feeling the pounding of my heart. I was a little happier when we drove down to La Paz and lost 1000 feet. Sean didn't fare so well. He was fine at the airport, but soon after began to take a plunge. While we explored La Paz, he explored variations in vomiting technique and spent the day commuting between his bed and the toilet bowl. (Sorry dear readers, no actual vomiting photos, but I think we might have one of him laying in bed feeling like crap.) That night the healthy three had a conference in the hall. We decided he didn't need to hit the hospital that night, but that we would drive to a lower elevation the next day to see if he improved. He was healed over night... magic. We headed to Lake Titicaca and Isla del Sol for a week of acclimitization. The island is at 13,000 and since there are no cars, you can spend hours trekking from one village to another. Dave took his turn being the sick one and stayed in bed for a day. Back to La Paz, then our first summit. Chacaltaya. It's almost 18,000 and was our trip up high. Of course it's a ski resort and you can drive nearly to the top. It was a nice walk and we saw a condor. A 3-4 hour bus ride (nice bus $10) took us to Sajama national park where we were greeted by Abel Murro, who other Cc folks have used. He took us by 4x4 to the base camp for the twins- a dry, gritty, sandy, dirty place. We skipped out on the 7 hour hike with mules, and had plenty of extra water. I wasn't quite ready for 14,000 feet and took my turn being sick. The next day we carried loads to 17,000 and moved up the next day. I was useless. The first climb was Parinacota which I skipped in favor of resting, recovering and acclimitizing. Sean managed his first 6000m peak, while Dan and David turned back shy of the summit. After a rest day we headed for Pomerata. Turns out our climb really was in Chile. Oops, illegal border crossing. We decided to follow the ridge, even though we spied easier lines from camp. Between the altitude and routefinding we ran out of time. I spent the evening being sick again. Back to Sajama Village to get our fill of alpaca and papas fritas and then to Sajama itself. This is Bolivia's tallest mountain and certainly taller than anything any of us had attempted before. Having performed so poorly so far, and having carried light loads, I decided to skip the summit attempt. Just as well, high winds scared the team down from high camp as soon as they got there. three mountains, four climbers, one measly summit. The cord. occidental had kicked our butts. So much for warming up on the "easy" routes. Pt. II- Condoriri as well as pics, coming soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpinfox Posted June 4, 2004 Share Posted June 4, 2004 looking forward to part II and PICTURES! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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